California Sues EPA; Says State Law Greener, Cleaner Than Feds

California today sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency today for preventing the state from reducing greenhouse gas emissions in its cars.

Passed in 2002, the Clean Car law requires cars sold in California to emit 30 percent fewer greenhouse gases by 2020. Because the law is stricter than federal Clean Air Act standards, California had to ask the EPA for permission. Such waivers are routinely granted for tailpipe emission laws, and federal courts recently supported California’s rights to make such demands, but in late December the EPA refused.

The refusal affected not only California but 16 other states who have demanded similar car pollution cuts. Agency head Stephen Johnson said the refusal was intended to avoid a "confusing patchwork of state rules," and said that fuel efficiency standards contained in a recently-passed federal energy law would accomplish comparable greenhouse gas cuts.

But in a conference call held today, California Air Resources Board chairwoman Mary Nichols said Johnson’s arguments were misleading and inaccurate. "There’s no such thing as a patchwork of emissions standards," she said. "There is a national Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard, and there’s the California greenhouse gas emissions standards, which is the one we’re seeking to enforce."

Nichols said that California’s emissions standards will reduce annual
CO2 emissions by 32.4 million tons in 2020, compared to savings of 18.9
million tons by the federal fuel efficiency standards. Cumulatively,
California’s laws will keep 58 million tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere between 2009 and 2016, while federal standards will save just 20 million tons. If the other 16 states follow California’s lead, said Nichols, they will together save 60 percent more greenhouse gases than would fuel efficiency improvements alone.

The House Oversight and Government Reform committee is investigating the EPA’s decision, which appears to have been influenced by pressure from Vice President
Dick Cheney and the automobile industry. Johnson allegedly denied
California’s petition over the recommendations of his legal and scientific advisors.

"It doesn’t have any foundation in law or fact," said Nichols of the EPA’s refusal.

Update: Fifteen other states have joined California in the lawsuit: Massachusetts, Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut and Washington. Five environmental nonprofit groups — the Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental Defense, International Center for Technology Assessment, Natural Resources Defense Counsel and the Sierra Club — have also filed their own lawsuit against the EPA.

Said Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal in a press release, "This administration is running on empty legally and morally. The EPA’s New Year’s resolution should be Face the Truth. Do your job or get out of the way, is what we say to the EPA. We will not accept no as an answer from do-nothing federal environmental officials when our public health and planet’s future are at stake. Top EPA officials are blocking responsible state steps against intolerable auto pollution, adding insult to injury and defying the law, common sense, science and their own staff."